Archive for October, 2011

A little over one year ago, Marianela Capelo initiated a project called A Stranger A Day, where she made it her mission to convince one stranger a day to let her take a picture of one of their tattoos, and share the story behind it. She posted them to her blog daily and we invited her to post one a week here on V.I.A., and it garnered such an amazing response. Now that the project is all wrapped up she’s hosting a one night show at Project Space on November 3rd (DETAILS), showcasing prints of every single tattoo she’s gathered. We decided to turn the tables on her and ask a few questions about her own tattoos and her experience talking to strangers.

What’s the most interesting story you’ve gathered during your time doing A Stranger A Day?
It is extremely hard to pick ONE story. To be absolutely honest, I don’t think there’s one that can be qualified as ‘the best’ (for either looks, story or circumstance), specially after hearing the vast array of stories and meeting a bunch of amazing people, and I kind of like that. There are a few that are outrageous and hard to believe, like the one made with ink mixed with a friend’s ashes, or the guy who got his private parts tattooed and let me photograph it. Probably not the ‘most interesting’ but certainly memorable.

Did you ever approach anybody and they didn’t want to talk to you or does pretty much everyone want to talk about their tattoos?
I’d say that less than 10 people (who have tattoos) have openly said that they don’t want to share. Considering the length of the project and the amount of people I’ve talked to, that’s pretty damn good! Vancouver is amazing this way. I didn’t have the same luck in Mexico or Southern US.

What’s the most visually appealing tattoo you’ve seen in the project? Like take the story away from it, strictly from an aesthetic point of view, which one do you like the most?
You’re putting me in a hard position here. I love the classic-looking tattoos, the anchors and ships (like this one) and the big and bold ones (like this one). Hard to think they are done with needles on skin.

Do you have any tattoos? If so, can YOU tell US a story about any of them?
I do have a few, my first one was a very simple one: a line drawing that Picasso made of his dog Lump (a dachshund), but mine has a broken tail. My dog passed away shortly after I moved to Vancouver. He was a Dachshund too and his tail was already broken when we adopted him. He was my buddy. My mom and brother loved him too, so the happiest family moments I have are with him.

Have you got any work done while gathering these stories and do you think the stories and the project itself influenced your decision on what to get?
I think this project helped me to let go, as cliché as it sounds. I didn’t have any tattoos when I started it, and it didn’t take long for me to get some. I thought I didn’t know what to get, or that the perfect tattoo will come to me, but there is no such thing as ‘the perfect tattoo’, and to be honest I already knew what I was getting.

Culture also played an important role: back in Mexico, where I’m from, many people look down on people with tattoos. You can get jobs denied for having one, and for girls, it could be the perfect (stupid) excuse for people to disrespect you. Without realizing it, I was perpetuating this shallow point of view by denying myself something I love, just to avoid cultural repercussions. I was the happiest person when I got my first one. It represented me owning my own body, and respecting my own beliefs.

Marianela’s dachshund tattoo

Do you think you’re as shy as you were when you started?
Nope! This really helped. It forced me to put myself out there and challenge what I called ‘fear of rejection’ (what I found was the source of my shyness). I discovered that the worst that could happen was …READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

It’s beautiful Fall weather and i’m feeling adventurous, maybe a little too adventurous. I have a conference up in Squamish on Social Media and I’m set to present on a panel in front 100 HR professionals. There’s a get together on the Wednesday night for all of the speakers and Thursday is an all day conference at Quest University. I actually had no idea that there was a University up in Squamish and it is absolutely beautiful, if i could have taken a picture I would have. (we’ll get to why not pretty soon) So i figure, i’m going to be up in Squamish i should definitely take advantage of the outdoors. What have i not done yet that would be interesting? hmmm….I heard there’s a beginners mountain biking trail in Squamish. Now i am not a mountain biker at all, but have been curious to try…so i do some research and stumble upon the Half Nelson. Apparently, it has something for all levels…i figured i’d walk the sections that are too challenging for me.

Wednesday morning I was off to the trail…..

…READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

OBJECT: “Uneven road” construction sign
NEIGHBOURHOOD: Cedar Cottage

Once weekly I bring you personified pieces of our city. Reaching into our neighbourhoods I collect images of all types of inanimate objects, then bring them to life!

CLICK TO VIEW THE ARCHIVE OF OUR “EYES ON VANCOUVER” SERIES:

LOCATION: Eton Street, Vancouver (Click for Map) I warned you that this wouldn’t be the last time I talked about fallen autumn leaves…I love ‘em! I love this leaf-limbo time of year when even though the streets and pavements are completely covered in a lovely red, brown and orange crunchy blanket nobody rakes it up because they know more is just going to fall the next day. It’s kind of like a city wide agreement to not bother making the bed because you’re just going to get right back in it anyway. I also love the point-of-view of this image…judging by the title of this shot and the plethora of photos of a ridiculously cute puppy named Denver on Morgan Taylor’s Flickr Photostream…a dog’s-eye-view, very effective. Thanks Morgan!

There was a lot of amazing photography in the pool this week folks, please keep posting and spreading the word about the Unplugged Flickr Pickr.

It’s that point in your consciousness where you can feel at one with nature, escaping the trappings of the day-to-day to an almost dream-like place where nothing else seems to exist besides you and your natural surroundings. It is our opinion here at VIA that Vancouver holds a unique place in the civilized world in that reaching this state often requires no more effort than simply pulling off to the side of the road, pocketing your keys and taking a few steps into the forest

Every day we share a single photo from our Flickr Pool shot by one of our faithful and talented readers (that’s you!)

I just couldn’t resist the photograph you see below today. Pumpkins by nature have a very limited window of time to impact North American society in any significant way, so as we head into the weekend – technically not quite All Hallow’s Eve, not for the kids anyway – it’s time to give this proud and robust squash its due. TOTORORO.RORO observed a shoal of wild pumpkins in their natural habitat a little earlier in the month, when the fruit was still immature and connected to the earth by a nutrient pipeline.

Such nice contrast with its green environs, and chock-full of not only beta carotene but also alpha carotene, the brilliant orange indicates the beginning of Pumpkin Season.

Gary

Shore, Forest and Beyond: Art From the Audain Collection is the latest exhibition hosted by the Vancouver Art Gallery. Opening tomorrow (Saturday, October 29th) it contains a staggering amount of work from the personal collection of Michael Audain and his wife, Yoshiko Karasawa, who have spent decades constructing what is now one of the most important private collections in all of Canada.

Audain is somewhat of a godfather when it comes to art in this country, and specifically this province. He’s the Chair of the Vancouver Art Gallery Foundation, the Audain Foundation for the Visual Arts, and the National Gallery of Canada. The recipient of three honourary doctoral degrees, appointed to the Order of Canada as well as the Order of British Columbia, he’s also the chairman of Polygon Homes. Polygon has built over 20,000 homes in B.C. since Michael founded it in 1980 and it’s hard for me to not draw a parallel between his work in building homes for people and his work in bringing back home a lot of important works of art. While a proud Canadian he also acknowledges that we’re a land of strong regionalists, and his loyalty for made-in-B.C. visual art pieces “stretching from ancient times up to today” has made my B.C. pride swell even beyond it’s regularly-huge size. From enough First Nations pieces (dating back to the mid 1800′s) to fill an entire museum to Canada’s largest private collection of Emily Carr paintings all the way to contemporary works by Stan Douglas, Jeff Wall, Brian Jungen and many more, a great deal of the local works have been bought on the international art market and Audain has promised that they will never leave their homeland again. Ever.

I’ve decided to share just three of my favourite works that I shot while touring the show today. While I love the First Nations ceremonial objects as well as modernist works from artists like B.C. Binning and Jack Shadbolt I always end up favouring the contemporary. As Mr Audain puts it “We each bring our own experience, knowledge and taste to the party”. So here’s mine…

Brian Jungen
Variant I
2002
…READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

The Bassment is a weekly article bringing you coverage of the best in Hip Hop and Electronic music from around Vancouver. Weekly interviews, event coverage, album and concert reviews that show how awesome our city’s electronic and hip hop scene really is. If you think there is someone or something that needs coverage in this city in regards to the Hip Hop / Electronic community then get in touch with us.

This week I talked community with another one of Vancouver’s Hip Hop collectives. A group that is so aptly named Hip Hop Vancouver. The organization and website have sought out to improve the interconnectedness of the hip hop artists and fans in this city. Through artist pages, which include events and videos, and up to date news on what’s what in Vancouver, the website provides a way for visitors to track the Vancouver scene. Now with many videos filmed for their HHVtv and for KOTD(king of the dot) there is even more content to keep you up to date. Here is a bit of what we talked about.

Who started HHV?

We don’t want to claim we started HHV…we feel like it was started by all those dudes that were doing it back in the day and many of whom are still very much a part of the scene today.

What was the idea behind it?

At the time we started out and up until the site was live, if you googled ‘vancouver hip hop’, all of the search results were for dance classes or clothing stores. Pass Da Mic went off the air and then Futility Records messageboard shut down. There was nowhere left online to discuss local hip-hop. The idea was to build a self-fuelling website for the scene, that would offer value to both fans and artists.

…READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

Welcome to the latest series of Super, Neighbours blog posts where we highlight incredible travel destinations in British Columbia! We’re visiting the ultimately romantic Rockwater Secret Cove Resort near Sechelt on the Sunshine Coast in this series. In THIS first post we were on the ferry, then HERE I introduced you to the (mind blowing) tenthouse suites and now it’s food time. It’s actually food time most of the time when you’re at Rockwater, as they serve breakfast lunch and dinner and to be honest the view from the dining room is only beat by the view from the private front porch of your tenthouse suite. Did I mention there’s no TVs in the tenthouses and that what you watch is the Pacific Ocean in all of it’s magic and beauty? I meant to. Below is the view from the table in the dining room that we sat at for most meals. It’s just as great no matter where you sit.

The view on your plate is equally awe-inspiring, as is the flavour. The menu has a West Coast theme and is prepared with as much local, organic produce, free range meats and wild seafood as you can handle. Everything is made from scratch including bread, smoked bacon and sauces. I haven’t been known for my eloquent food writing so I’ll do what I usually do and let these descriptions and photos of the food do the talking…

DINNER
West Coast Bouillabaisse
Mussels, manila clams, halibut, prawns, scallops, fennel, house broth, and grilled bread rouille

Panko Crusted Pacific Halibut
Mixed wild mushroom glaze and green chilies, baby red potatoes

LUNCH
Fresh Pacific Halibut and …READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>